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Luxury Vinyl Flooring

Luxury vinyl flooring is where elegant meets practical. Innovation in 3D technology has produced a flooring product that is nothing like the dreaded linoleum, which yellowed and curled at the edges. High quality vinyl flooring can transform any room in your home.There are two types of luxury vinyl flooring: tiles that replicate stone and plank that imitates wood. You’ll have a choice of a smooth finish or attain a more authentic look with floor planks that are hand-scraped and ribbed. This will give the appearance of real wood and most people cannot tell the difference.

Affordable

You’ll no longer have to envy designer floors found in glossy magazines. Luxury vinyl is affordable. It is a whole new paradigm in design-ability for a fraction of the cost! You’ll literally find hundreds of styles that will complement your desired décor.

Durable

Luxury vinyl flooring is available that looks like ceramic tile, marble, bamboo and more. Behind the scenes, the manufacturer pre-treats the vinyl with anti-microbial and germ killing properties to make your home safer. You’ll have no more worries about pet accidents or spills as luxury vinyl is not damaged by moisture. Since it is totally waterproof you can install in your kitchen and bathrooms, confident your luxury vinyl flooring will last 20 plus years.

Sunlight won’t fade the coloring or make the surface weaker. It also resists burning or freezing. The secret of its resilience is found in the product’s layers that are fused together: Base layer is crafted from eco-friendly materials, making your luxury vinyl flooring impervious to moisture and dents. Top layer protects against mildew and mold and withstands stains and abrasions. Wear layer contains modern printing images that model genuine stone or hardwoods. It is made from urethane to heighten the durability of luxury vinyl.

Easy-Breezy Care

Maintenance couldn’t get easier! Just sweep, mop and you’re done.

Your resilient flooring is characteristic for “giving” when you walk on it, which presents a cushioning sensation that is not available with other types of flooring. It is also softer than hardwoods.

Installation

If you’re a DIY person, luxury vinyl is not difficult to install. Otherwise, you should probably engage a professional. Detailed instructions will be included with your purchase, but the process is pretty straightforward.

Be mindful that luxury vinyl is a thinner product than wood or ceramic tile. Alternatively, it’s thicker than regular sheet vinyl.

Remove old tile and sand down any bumps or humps in the subfloor since it should be installed on a clean and smooth floor. Don’t worry about leveling the floor; it simply needs to be smooth, not necessarily level.

Before you stick the vinyl planks down, lay them out on the floor to see if you’re happy with the appearance. Note: the backs of the planks are sticky. Try peeling the paper halfway back and hold the papered part as you match the plank edges. Press on the paperless part of the plank until it sticks to the floor. Then, peel the remaining paper to secure the rest of the plank to the floor.

Ensure you get the planks as close together as possible to keep water from seeping through any cracks. Then seal and caulk. You can buy caulk that matches your luxury vinyl flooring.

Now, stand back and admire your luxury vinyl flooring!

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Flooring Ideas to Make a Room Look Bigger

When you’re house shopping, a small room might seem cozy, cute and charming. Once you actually live in the home, don’t be surprised if that charming little room changes to claustrophobic. Interior Designers offer all sorts of options like brighter lights and a minimalist look to make a tiny room seem larger.However, it is the rare professional who suggests changing the flooring to make a room look bigger. Let’s us help you with that.

Bamboo Floors

Bamboo is trending due its sustainability and durability. Your bamboo floor will have a beautiful patina and add a touch of elegance to every room in your home. The natural color of bamboo is buttery, making small rooms appear larger. Another auspicious feature is that bamboo flooring does not require a lot of chemicals for proper maintenance.

All-in-all bamboo wood flooring is perfect for environmentally-conscious homeowners.

Parquet Floors?

Bamboo is in; parquet hardwood is out. Due to the small squares in parquet floors your small room will seem to shrink. You’ll immediately see the difference by changing outdated parquet flooring to wider planks of light oak.

Tiny Bathrooms

To make a little bitty bathroom appear bigger, choose large floor tiles. With fewer grout lines and grids, you’ll be surprised at how much the room opens up. Flooring experts suggest 12″x12″ or larger tiles. You can clean large tiles easier and the floor assumes a less messy look.

Go with white or pastel colored tiles to influence a more spacious look in a small bathroom.

Wide Plank Hardwoods

Wide plank hardwood is classic and classy. Sleek, shiny finishes are out of fashion. To achieve that desirable rustic chic appearance, have your installer lay the boards on the diagonal. This also creates an optical illusion that the room is larger.

The diagonal pattern is particularly effective in making space look wider in the older galley type kitchen. Don’t lay the planks lengthwise, it will make the constricted galley feel even narrower. Laying the planks widthwise adds depth to small rooms.

Is Dark Wood an Absolute No-No?

No! For instance, a roasted espresso colored hardwood floor can make a rich statement. You’ll just have to take extra care about walls, furnishings and accessories. By painting walls a pale color, more light will be reflected into the small room, giving the illusion of more space. Also, consider painting bookshelves, dressers, etc. the same color. This will make them appear as if they are blending into the walls and open-up littler rooms.

Floor Tile

If you’re into ease of maintenance, consider floor tiles. Cut stone or ceramic tiles add panache to small rooms. Have your professional installer mix rectangular and square tiles to make a profound visual statement of expanded space.

Select larger tiles as the smaller kind call for more grout lines and make your floor look too busy. A decorator’s trick is using grout the same color as the tile to provide an illusion of enhanced space.

To Carpet or Not to Carpet

Carpet is not prudent for small rooms. It closes in the space, making a small room even more claustrophobic. Wood flooring adds horizontal lines to the floor that appear to widen the small area. You can always accessorize with a colorful area rug.

Are you excited to try out our flooring ideas to make a room look bigger?

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First Impressions

hotel lobby carpetMom used to always say, “you only have one chance to make a good first impression.” She, and my dad, business partners and motel operators knew this statement to be is true for their business as well as personal life. From the moment patrons set foot in the high-gloss lobby, floors play an essential role in shaping that first impression.

But, there is a particular challenge in optimal floor care for hospitality venues such as hotels because they are open daily, around the clock. Due to constant foot traffic and various weather conditions, dirt and debris will be tracked into the premises. Sub-standard floor care can lead to expensive maintenance and instigate dangerous conditions for users.

Lobbies may create the best first impression but other areas in the establishment such as guest rooms, meeting rooms, kitchens, gaming areas and so on, should present with gleaming floor surfaces. It takes perseverance and a lot of rigorous work to ensure floors look like new. Professional cleaning staff should be proud of their exceptional performance, skill level and knowledge of correct floor maintenance, as the results of their work makes an impression on all people who enter the building.

When floors are scrupulously clean with a brilliant shine, everyone coming in the building will get a positive first impression. Scratches or scrapes, dust bunnies underneath furniture or yellow stains on hard floors, indicate sloppy maintenance. Patrons look at floors to measure a facility’s overall standards of cleanliness.

Similar to the health care industry, hospitality sectors focus on preventative maintenance. There are basic techniques that prevent floors from getting grubby. While even the simplest of these are often disregarded, they affect how often professional cleaning staff are required and expenditure for their service.

Put rigorous attention on a radius of: 20 feet, exterior and 30 feet, interior, at every entrance. Either wash down or sweep the exterior area daily to eliminate dirt that could be tracked inside. Next, be extra vigilant about vacuuming or sweeping high traffic areas.

Cleaning staff should be provided with sufficient cleaning and personal protective equipment and supplies. Set up policies and procedures for individual floor care duties. Provide cleaning staff with ongoing education. Make them aware of the Certified Floor Care Technician (FCT) course, which is obtainable through the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification.

Encourage guest participation in a clean environment by placing trash containers in restrooms and near entrances and elevators.

Preventative maintenance and deep cleaning extends the life of flooring, protects the owner’s investment and portrays a stellar first impression to patrons.

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Home Gym Flooring Buying Guide

Creating a gym within the home is an exciting undertaking; however, in order to create a suitable exercise area, it takes more than simply purchasing exercise equipment that is designed to facilitate the fitness requirements and goals that you have. You must also know what to look for when it comes to the flooring that will be used in your home gym. Essentially, the purpose of the flooring in the gym that you create in your home is to protect the main flooring from damage that may be incurred as a result of utilizing certain types of exercise equipment and to protect yourself while working out in the home gym. Home gym flooring assists in protecting you, and the overall integrity associated with your home. In this consumer buying guide, you will learn a few simple considerations that should be made in order to find the most suitable flooring for your needs.

Why Choose Special Flooring?

Before purchasing your home gym flooring, it is imperative to understand why you must choose special types of flooring for this type of endeavor. Below, you will find the top advantages to integrating a special form of flooring in your exercise room:

  • Most homes have carpet, wood, vinyl, or tile on the floors. When using exercise equipment such as treadmills, elliptical trainers, exercise bikes, universal home gym units, and weights, the flooring in the home may become scratched, dented, splintered, and experience other forms of damage; however, by placing special flooring such as specially constructed hardwood flooring, laminate flooring and carpet tiles, you will be taking a step in protecting the home’s original flooring.
  • When exercising and working out the body, you may perform many movements that could result in loss of footing, slippage, and falls on traditional types of flooring. Special flooring on the home gym has the ability to reduce the opportunity for these complications to occur.
  • When working out in a home gym, it is imperative that you work to protect the bones, the muscles, and your joints. Traditional home flooring offers very little in the way of protecting these components of the body; however, home gym flooring often provides the cushioning that is necessary to offer this form of protection.

Firmness

The first consideration that should be made when purchasing home gym flooring is the firmness requirements that you have. While soft flooring is ideal for certain types of workouts, firmer floors are important for other types of workouts. For example, if you plan to utilizing weights and engage in stability exercises, you will not want to purchase soft flooring as it could place an exceptionally high level of stress on your body, which could enhance the opportunity for injuries to occur. If you plan to do dance workouts, cardio workouts, or exercises such as Pilates and even yoga, then, it will be best to opt for a softer floor. Before purchasing the flooring for your home gym, consider the types of exercises and workouts that will be performed in the room so that you may determine the firmness required in your flooring.

Traction Needs

The next consideration that should be made before purchasing the flooring for your gym is your traction needs while working out. Floor surfaces that are considered to be slippery may prove to be exceptionally dangerous when performing certain types of workouts, such as strength training. However, if you plan to do dance or aerobics, you may benefit from a floor that is a bit slick in nature, such as those composed of hardwood or laminate. If you plan to optimize your strength, rubber flooring and flooring such as carpet tiles may be your best option.

Price and Maintenance

The next, and final, considerations that need to be made when choosing flooring for your gym is the price of the flooring and the maintenance that is involved in caring for the floor. As with any type of flooring, you will be required to clean the flooring on a regular basis, replace components of the floor as time progresses, and engage in other activities that will help keep the floor in top shape. You will need to not only make sure you can afford to purchase the flooring, but that you are able to keep up on the needs of the flooring. The least expensive types of flooring that are the easiest to maintain are hardwood options, carpet tile flooring, and even specially-designed laminate flooring.

Conclusion

Selecting flooring for your home gym may prove to be a challenging endeavor; however, by focusing on the purpose of the flooring, the firmness of the flooring, the traction of the flooring, and the price and maintenance, you are sure to discover many options. There are many flooring types available on the market today that will protect your home, your body, and the equipment that you choose to place in your gym. Flooring choice is a highly personalized purchase as you will need to make your selection based on your needs, your home’s protection, and your protection.

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Hospitality Sector Floor Care

Keeping floors impeccably clean tempts guests to keep coming back and generates word-of-mouth advertising. With social media exploding globally, one thumbs-up can lead to positive comments and reviews all over the internet.It may be appealing to concentrate intensely on maintaining high gloss shines on hard wood floors to the extent carpeted areas are neglected. This would be a mistake, as patrons judge a venue on all-over cleanliness.

A sensible carpet cleaning plan includes: daily spot removal, regular days to clean surface dirt in high traffic zones and deep cleaning, as necessary to thoroughly remove lingering dry soils.

Keep floor mats at all entrances to trap walk-in dirt. Use a spin bonnet regularly to get-up sticky stuff and soil so that it won’t penetrate the carpet pad.

The cutting-edge method of spot cleaning is the three-tank machine. The first tank uses cleaning solution, the next holds clear rinsing water and the last tank is for recovered liquid. By adding a rinse cycle, this method is much more efficient than former two-tank machines. The rinse-cycle handles removing dirt and cleaning solutions, making the carpet squeaky clean.

To clean surface dirt in high traffic areas, use a spin bonnet or floor machine with pad attached or sprinkle cleansing powder on the carpet before vacuuming.

Deep cleaning is accomplished by using the wet extraction method. Portable and truck mounted units are available. For larger areas, there are “walk behind” units. In general, a quality portable unit offers the most flexibility. It’s more efficient in buildings with several floors, since the portable machine does not require using hoses that are hooked up to a truck. The portable unit also converts to a machine that cleans stairs and furniture.

Hot water is a better carpet cleaning agent than cold water. Ensure that cleaning staff uses a heated extractor for deep cleaning. Hot water removes grease stains from carpets efficiently, where cold water won’t. It is also eco-friendly as stronger cleaners are unnecessary, which reduces fumes from airborne chemicals.

The heated extractor is gaining in popularity due to the benefits of using hot water for cleaning carpets. The optimal unit originates and sustains the preferred temperature at the wand tip instead of merely inside the machine. It’s also best to select a unit with ample pressure and suction to infiltrate carpet fibers and retract dirty cleaning solution. Lightweight, maneuverable heat extractors with sufficient holding and recovery tanks make the job easier.

The building will look and smell its best by following these steps.

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Why You Should Choose Carpet for Your Basement Floors

A finished basement can be an awesome spot to hang out. Whether you’re planning on turning the space into a man cave, a game room, a workshop, or even a home office, one of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make is on flooring. The right flooring will make all the difference in the dynamic of your design, and it can make or break the usability of the space.

Factors to Consider

Style aside, there are two major factors to consider in choosing your flooring: moisture and temperature. Basements tend to be considerably colder than the rest of the house, so a tile or cement flooring only makes the space feel colder and less inviting.

Depending on your region, your basement may be damper as well. Leaks are an obvious concern; however, you’d be surprised to know how much moisture gets in without a single leak. Of course, little cracks in the floor can seep moisture vapor, but an intact concrete floor will also emit a degree of moisture. If your washer and dryer are in your basement, that just adds to the moisture factor.

Because of these two factors, carpet is almost always the best choice for basement flooring. It’s warm underfoot, and it’s far more “breathable” than wood or laminate flooring. It’s also extremely versatile, and you can find a carpet style and feel to fit any décor plan.

What About Mold?

There’s a lot of debate over this issue, and there are plenty of good points on both sides. The fact is, carpet stands up to moisture as well or better than many types of flooring. It’s far more breathable than sheet vinyl, wood, or wood laminate, so if you’re just dealing with light moisture, your carpets will fare just fine. Of course, you can also install a dehumidifier to keep that bit of moisture at bay.

In the event of an actual leak, carpeting is actually much easier to salvage than other types of flooring. A carpet can be dried out and the water extracted before mold can even set in, whereas wood, laminate or vinyl would likely have to be replaced.

Choosing the Right Carpet

To get the best value out of your basement, you definitely have to pick the right type of carpeting. Not all carpet is created equal, and certain types will work better in a basement space. Here are a few qualities to look for:

– Man-made – Nylon or polyester fibers will stand up to moisture much better than natural fibers.

– Pad-less – Padding will keep moisture trapped under the carpet, so it’s best avoided.

– Low pile – Thick carpet might feel luxurious underfoot, but it doesn’t breathe as easily. Low pile carpet won’t retain as much moisture, and it’ll be easier to clean and dry if the need arises.

– Sectioned – This is one of the smartest moves in picking basement carpeting. By opting for carpet tiles, you can easily and cheaply replace any sections that do get damaged if your basement springs a leak.

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How to Remove Nail Polish from Carpets

Your nails might look great after your DIY mani-pedi, but one wrong move could leave your carpet horribly stained. You might be surprised to find how often this actually occurs. Clumsy, drying fingers and fiddly little bottles just aren’t a good combination.

So if you’ve gone and spilled nail polish all over your lovely rug, you might be freaking out a little. But before you start scrubbing frantically at the stain, take a moment to approach the problem strategically. In most cases, you can get nail polish out of your carpet.

Don’t Wait

Nail polish is made to be tough stuff. If you let it dry out, you’re going to have a very difficult time removing it. When nail polish spills on your carpet, it’s important to attack it immediately, because the fresher it is, the easier it will be removed.

That means that you probably don’t want to wait around for a professional cleaner either. A cleaner may take hours or even days to show up, and by the time they arrive, the stain will have settled in for good.

Successful Solvents

The good news is that you probably have a number of effective stain-removal products lying around your home. Here are a few that we’ve been pretty successful with:

  • Nail Polish Remover – Makes sense, huh? If you’re painting your nails, you’ve likely got some clear, non-acetone nail polish remover lying around. Pour some nail polish remover on a white cloth and blot (don’t rub!) at the spot. Be patient because it might take a while; but keep pouring and blotting and you should see the stain slowly come out.
  • Hydrogen Peroxide – Many folks prefer this approach because it’s much milder than nail polish remover, and less likely to damage a carpet further. Blot up as much of the spill as you can, then apply a little peroxide and slowly blot the stain out of the rug with a white cloth.
  • Hair Spray – If gentler approaches don’t work, you might have to bring out the big guns. Hair spray has proven to be pretty effective; however, it can be harsh on carpet fabrics, so be careful. Blast the stain with a few good shots of hair spray and scrub very gently with an old toothbrush. Blot with a cloth or paper towel, and repeat until the stain is gone.

Sometimes we’ve found that a combination of these techniques will work where one on its own fails. If you’re dealing with a brand new stain, you should be able to get it out quite easily this way.

What About Old Stains?

If you’ve just discovered a stain that’s been sitting for days or weeks, don’t fret. There are a few options here too:

– Trim – If the stain is only on the tips of the fibers, you can carefully trim the stained tips.

– Scrub – Tackle it with one (or all) of the products above. It’ll often work!

– Replace – If all else fails, you can replace the one carpet tile or create a small “cookie-cutter” patch for the spot.

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Gym Floor Carpet

Many institutions, both non-profit and commercial, have found themselves dealing with not only a limited amount of space, but a restricted budget as well. This has made the need for using rooms or buildings for more than one purpose a necessity in many cases. It has also made saving money in the remodeling or construction of these types of facilities an important part of the planning process.

A multipurpose room is the answer to both limited budget and limited space issues. It reduces overhead costs, maintenance, and staffing costs and will be able to suit a variety of different needs. Gym carpet is perfect for public events and ceremonies as well as for sporting events of all kinds.

Not only are gym floor carpets useful in your multipurpose facility, they are also made to withstand years of high traffic and wear and tear. The materials that are used in manufacturing are stain resistant to ensure that the carpet remains looking its best for every event that you plan. It can easily make the transformation from a durable surface for recreational sports by day to a warm and welcoming banquet hall by night.

In any facility that must be used for many different events, such as health facilities, recreational centers, and churches, you need a floor covering that truly is multipurpose in function as well as name. Sport floor carpeting will perform just as well as a surface for sports as it does as a dance floor.

Using gym carpet to convert a playing court with traditional wood flooring into a floor that can be used comfortably for any type of gathering will enable any organization to facilitate a wide variety of events in a single setting. Carpeting also raises the quality of the acoustics in any room, and reduces echoing, making musical performances, parties, ceremonies and sporting events much more enjoyable to those in attendance.

The ability to accommodate and attract a more diverse array of gatherings can open the door to new sources of revenue and make the facility much more profitable. The use of gym carpet for flooring can be a distinctly beneficial addition to any room or building, whether it is used for commercial purposes or non-profit fundraisers.

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